Safety concern on kiddie ride

Ahem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmZFHI7jPEw

I don't think its a matter of the situation being unsafe but less safe. The question is how much less safe. To me, if the parents were comfortable with letting the kid ride by himself, I agree with Dave that the difference was not significant at all. And if a parent thinks the difference is signficant with respect to his/her kid, I would question whether the kid should be permitted to ride the ride by his/herself in the first place.

There are a number of ways that the ride could be made more safe (such as by adding keyed locks which could only be opened by the ride op when the ride was completely over and stopped). But I don't think that makes the ride unsafe as it currently operates.

It's not about what you could mechanically do different, it's about using the restraint as the manufacturer intended and not leaving it up to the interpretation of kids, parents or ride operators to determine what's "safe enough."

I clearly need to defend myself here a little... :)

Jeff, if we're talking about a random kid, then yes, you're right, there is, as you put it, an inherent danger. I'm being specific, looking at the photo of the four-year-old in question. As to why the kid is secured improperly? I think campfreak06 has the "how"; as for the "why," I'd say it's because he was riding by himself and wanted to sit in the middle of the seat, probably so that he could stretch his arms out on both sides of the seat back (see photo). That's why I don't think it is a big deal here...this is a kid who is comfortable enough or smart enough that based on the photo and the testimony of the original poster, is probably a very low risk for freaking out on the ride, and is probably the kind of rider that most kiddie ride operators would like to have more often, in spite of his apparent propensity for misusing the safety equipment.

GoBucks89, I think you understand what I was getting at. I am going to disagree with you about the parents comfort level with letting the kid ride by himself. Parents are notorious for their poor judgement around amusement rides. :)

(Tiny Toot Railway...hmmm...That's the Zamperla Dragon that has the hand-cars running in a circle under it, right? Hey, I liked Silverwood when I went there, but back then they still had the airstrip and Tremors was new...)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I worked a lot of kiddie rides in my day. Could I have made that mistake? Unlikely..but it is possible. More possible if I was at the end of a double shift, it was crowded, etc.

If I noticed it I would have stopped the ride immediately, corrected it, and got them going again. If it were pointed out to me, likewise.

From a single photo it is hard to determine what is happening. Could there have been another child on the ride with some kind of issue the rider operator was concentrating on? Could a guest have been talking the ride ops ear off and he/she not be paying attention?

And, I'm not even prepared to blame the person who took the photo. Was it noticed at the time or only after they looked at the picture?

If a guest noticed it and didn't say anything then that is a problem too.

The original poster did say, "I went over to the operator to tell her and from what I could understand she just told me that he was fine."

Walt said:
The original poster did say, "I went over to the operator to tell her and from what I could understand she just told me that he was fine."

How dare you actually read his post instead of just complaining about him

Here's the thing, Dave. One of the ways you mitigate risk is to reduce variables that increase it. That's why ride operators have to be consistent. They have zero time and context to make a judgment call on how to restrain the kid. The op screwed up, and got lucky that this kid just sat there.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that there wasn't a screw up. Ride-op either should have noticed that the restraint wasn't in proper use when checking them or, assuming the rider intially had the restraint correct, was checked and then reset his legs to the position in the picture, should have noticed the problem when the ride was in operation. And my guess is that CP's official policy is that if any ride op at any time discovers or is alerted to a safety violation, the ride op should stop the ride as soon as possible. And I suspect the guidelines do not leave it to the ride ops to determine if the safety violation is serious enough to stop the ride or if they should just let the cycle finish.

And no one is suggesting that the standard should be anything other than the restraint goes between each rider's legs or that kids, parents or ride ops be able to determine how the restraints should be used on this ride or any other ride.

Question is whether given the fact that the kid was riding with the restraints as they were, was his ride unsafe. I don't think it was. Had that been my kid and I was comfortable with them riding alone in the first place, I would not have freaked out or run over to the ride op demanding that the ride be shut down. And on any given day or during any given week or month, how many times do you think the chain restraint actually comes into play?

You don't think the ride was unsafe, and that's exactly my point. Ride operators should not have that discretion.

I don't think they should have that discretion either:

GoBucks89 said:
And my guess is that CP's official policy is that if any ride op at any time discovers or is alerted to a safety violation, the ride op should stop the ride as soon as possible. And I suspect the guidelines do not leave it to the ride ops to determine if the safety violation is serious enough to stop the ride or if they should just let the cycle finish.

So who here is saying they should?

Apparently no one thought that a man with no legs would fly out of a roller coaster, but he did. There's really no question that the policy should be followed by the letter each and every time.

If there was a Safety violation and I can't say that there was or was not one. Then the Ride Op should have stopped the ride as soon as he/she saw the problem or it was brought to there attention. Safety is Cedar Points number one priority and they will never give that up. I hope that everyone that is posting on this understands that.